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Aurora Mayor given advice, returns it in wake of Sikh shootings

By Kurtis LeeThe Denver Post

Posted:
08/07/2012 03:01:09 PM MDT

Updated:
08/07/2012 03:57:14 PM MDT

A makeshift memorial sits near the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin August, 7, 2012 Oak Creek Wisconsin. A suspected gunman, 40-year-old Wade Michael Page, allegedly killed six people at the temple August 5, was shot to death by police at the scene. He was an army veteran and reportedly a former leader of a white supremacist heavy metal band. Three others were critically wounded in the attack. (Darren Hauck, Getty Images North America)

Tiajah Morris, 10, reads notes left at the grassroots memorial across the street from where the Aurora theater shooting took place in Aurora, CO, , Monday, July 30, 2012. (Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post)

AURORA — In the hours and days that followed the mass shooting at the Century Aurora 16 theater, Mayor Steve Hogan received advice and words of comfort from dozens of leaders nationwide as he and his city grappled with the tragedy.

However, on Sunday, a little more than two weeks after the initial shock of what had happened here, it was Hogan who was on the phone offering advice to Oak Creek, Wis., Mayor Steve Scaffidi.

"There's this family of mayors, no matter how big or small your city is, that no matter what happens we're the face of the community," Hogan said. "And I just wanted to offer condolences from our city to theirs."

Scaffidi, at that moment, was dealing with the results of a suspect walking into a local Sikh Temple and opening gunfire, murdering six people before being shot and killed by police in the parking lot.

"It was important to let him know that I had gone through something similar," said Hogan, who in the early hours of July 20, was thrust into the international spotlight in the wake of the shooting that left 12 killed and 58 wounded at the Century Aurora 16 theater.

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In their brief conversation, Hogan said he advised Scaffidi to be calm and straightforward with the community — advice that Tucson, Ariz., Mayor Jonathan Rothschild and Jonesboro, Ark., Mayor Harold Perrin conveyed to him just days before.

Both of those communities were forced to deal with mass shootings — one outside of a grocery store that injured then-U.S. Congresswoman Gabby Giffords the other at school that left four students dead — though neither Rothschild nor Perrin were in office at the time.

"They had told me, 'Whatever message you think you need to deliver to your community, deliver it. And stay on that message.' "

In the days that followed the shooting, Hogan's message focused solely on the victims and their families. Then on July 22 — the day of the citywide vigil — it was expanded to the entire community.

On his Facebook page following the theater shooting, Rothschild posted an open letter to Hogan that read: "As the mayor of a city that went through a similar trauma, I wanted to reach out to you, offer my sympathy and support.Tucson came together after January 8 (2011), showed an amazing spirit of togetherness and strength and, though forever changed, is a stronger, more caring and tolerant community."

Hogan is optimistic that the same outcome will occur here in Aurora and in Oak Creek.

"It was that kind of recognition that people from outside the community are aware, and that we're not alone in this," said Hogan about the outpouring of support. "That's going to help us all here, and in Oak Creek, move forward."

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